EB-5 visa may double by January 2019; 10,000 are up for grabs every year

The visa promises foreign citizens a faster route to permanent residency in the US; 10,000 are up for grabs every year

Visa facilitation companies specialising in the United States' EB-5 visa programme are looking at high growth in 2018, as they wheel in wealthy Indians with the warning that the current $500,000 price could double by the end of the year. The EB-5 visa promises foreign citizens a faster route to permanent residency in the US provided they invest the one-time stipulated amount (more than Rs 31 million) in a government-approved EB-5 business or create 10 full-time jobs in the country. A total of 10,000 visas are up for grabs every year with no country allowed more than seven per cent of all visas, or 700 slots, in the first instance. 

Currently, Indians has the fourth largest number of applicants. Indians have invested till now upwards of $120 million in the United States through the programme. Demand from Tier-III towns such as Jalandhar, Pune and Rajkot have led to an influx of companies promising an easy access to the US who are looking to lock in buyers soon.

"There's almost no chance of a price hike happening in the US Congress during the current session, till December. However, after that, there is all the chance that the House may initiate proceedings doubling the cost of the visa to a million US dollars", Aaron Schock, US Congressman and Chief Sponsor of the EB-5 Reauthorization Law back in 2012, told Business Standard. Schock is associated with AVG America Investments, a new entrant into the market, and added the price hasn't been hiked in the over 30 years that the program has been around.

"EB-5 is the only realistic way for an aspiring Indian family to move to the US as wait times in other visa categories are unsustainable to the extent that for Indians, the H1-B category is backed up by more than a 100 years. We manage more than 1,800 global investors and most of them are looking to move to the US for educational prospects of their children", Vikram Aditya Kumar, president and CEO said.

"There are more than a hundred players in the Indian market right now, but very few offer a packaged investment management service like we do. We are looking at a 100 investors in our first year", Kumar added.

US-bound Indians expected to soar

There were more than 500 visa applications from India in 2016-17 and higher numbers were expected once the official data for the current financial year rolls in. After applications close, remaining slots are allotted to wait listed candidates. As a result, more than 85 per cent of visas went to Chinese nationals till 2014. "We expect demand from India to continue in 2018 no matter the changes and catch up to China, which remains the largest source of EB-5 visa applications," Abhinav Lohia, vice-president of India and Middle East at visa facilitation firm CanAm Enterprises, said.

According to CanAm, the number of Indian applicants has grown 140 per cent since 2014, currently ranking just behind China and Vietnam. India is the fourth largest market for the visa category after China, Vietnam, and South Korea. While the scheme has been running since 1990, later, amendments started the regional center program that Indians favour. It facilitates investments in targeted employment areas, mostly in rural areas, where unemployment rates are 1.5 per cent higher than the national average.

But, the programme is not expected to be an alternative to the H-IB visa program, through which most Indian technology majors send employees to the US. "While a clampdown on temporary work visas used by information technology professionals has continued ever since the Donald Trump administration took charge, it will not be feasible to source employees through the EB-5 since it would be just too costly,” a senior official from industry body Nasscom said under conditions of anonymity.